A nice break or a nightmare? Boro have another Saturday stewing and kicking their heels when they could be bouncing back from stinging successive defeats.

They should be going to lowly MK Dons looking to kick-start the promotion push but with their opponents in FA Cup action their is a big void in their - and our - weekend schedules.

So as we contemplate an afternoon on the settee watching Jeff and the lads as the results elsewhere come in to mock our inactivity, is there an up side?

I think there is. A big one. Let’s look at the pros and cons.

Bad break

As Bernie Slaven often tells us, psychologically a break is always bad for players.

If you have just won your last game you have a spring in your step and want to play again the next day, to score another goal, to keep another clean sheet and to bank more points to keep it all bubbling.

And if you have lost, well you want to play again immediately to make amends, regain lost ground and ease the sting of defeat.

An enforced break after a defeat means there is a long time to stew on it, have flashbacks to fatal mistakes and relive missed sitters or misplaced passes.

Boro's bench react angrily against Forest

Plus, unlike an international break when all football is put in the freezer, this time other teams are in action.

Before Boro play again - at home to Blackburn on February 6 - third placed Burnley go to Sheffield Wednesday in sixth while ailing Derby, now back in fifth, host Preston.

If they win big spending Burnley could move within a point of Boro while Derby could close the gap to three points and while our heroes will then have two games in hand it still tightens the screw.

Welcome break

The welcome two week respite has come at a great time for Boro.

It follows not just two morale-denting defeats on the spin but also an FA Cup exit to Burnley and a fortuitous win in a poor performance at Brentford.

They haven’t been playing well and since the clean sheet sequence was ripped off the washing line and left muddy and crumpled have looked clunky and unbalanced, even at the back.

They looked tired and laboured after two long distance away games with little time to recover or prepare.

So it is a good time to regroup, refocus and recharge batteries.

Kike Sola on the bench for Boro

Plus, with new faces arriving before the window - £9m signing Jordan Rhodes, Spanish forward Kike Sola and Uruguay playmaker Gaston Ramirez may yet be joined by others - it gives a good opportunity to bed them in, let them do their initiation song on the karaoke and get to know the lads’ nicknames.

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And more importantly to let them get up to speed with the style, system, tempo and intensity the team play and Aitor’s "philosophy and methodology".

Another big gain from this break is that it has allowed Karanka to nurse back some key players from injuries.

And the last break, in November, was the launchpad for a surge to the top on the back of three straight victories that built a run of eight wins and a draw in the league.

Vic's verdict

For Boro, the more breaks the better. The past 18 months have shown that the team benefit directly when Aitor Karanka gets the luxury of two weeks to work on detailed tactical preparation and to refocus the team.

In the Championship there are a lot of games and squads can start to show the strains and Boro have used the breaks well to aid recovery and recharge batteries.